Organizing Occupy Wall Street: This is Just Practice (Alternatives and Futures: Cultures, Practices, Activism and Utopias)

This book is the first study of the processes and structures of the Occupy Wall Street movement, written from the perspective of a core organizer who was involved from the inception to the end. While much has been written on OWS, few books have focused on how the movement was organized. Marisa Holmes, an organizer of OWS in New York City, aims to fill this gap by deriving the theory from the practice and analyzing a broad range of original primary sources, from collective statements, structure documents, meeting minutes, and live tweets, to hundreds of hours of footage from the OWS Media Working Group archive. In doing so, she reveals how the movement was organized in practice, which experiments were most successful, and what future generations can learn. Foreword from the Series Editor Main Foreword Preface: All Day All Week My Approach to Writing Analysing with Movements References Acknowledgements Praise for Organizing Occupy Wall Street Contents 1: Intergenerational Dialogues The Zapatistas The World Trade Organization and Direct Action Network The New Students for a Democratic Society The 2007–2008 Crash Student Occupations Workplace Occupations Housing Occupations Riding the Wave References 2: The Squares Egyptians in New York City Chasing the Revolution April 6th Youth Movement Offices Amal The Second Friday of Anger Negotiation From 15 M to Occupy References 3: The New York City General Assembly NYC Uncut 12 May and Bloombergville Adbusters The Process The Question of Demands We Are the 99% Test Run The OWS Media Working Group Tweets from the Streets Trainings References 4: Day One Zuccotti Park Wall Street Our Park Mic Check! References 5: Our Park Tents The People’s Kitchen The Medic Station OWS Legal The People’s Library The Comfort Station References 6: This Is What Democracy Looks Like Modified Consensus The Facilitation Working Group Demands and Declarations References 7: Direct Action Non-Violent Direct Action The Bell #S24 The Brooklyn Bridge References 8: Media for the 99% The OWS Media Center Media Cluster Shifting the Narrative Global Village References 9: Allies The Walkthrough The Unions 5 Oct The Working Families Party Health and Safety Move-on.org Park Defense References 10: Race in OWS Troy Davis We Are All Troy Davis The People of Color Caucus Challenges for the People of Color Caucus References 11: Gender in OWS Safer Spaces Community Agreement The Safer Spaces Tent References 12: Structure Democratic Organization The Spokes Council The Spokes Council Proposal False Starts Disruption References 13: The Eviction Whose Park? Legal Window References 14: Occupy Somewhere #D6 702 Vermont Ave #D17 #M17 Sidewalk Sleep-Outs Occupy Town Square The Magic Mountain References 15: Money in the Movement Finance The Office Movement Resource Group Money Out of Politics Power, Privilege, and Access to Resources References 16: All Our Grievances Are Connected The Dream of a General Strike M1 Organizing Structure Spring Training Rank and File Outreach Free CUNY To Strike or Not to Strike Student Strike to the Free University Art on Strik e May Day, May Day Debriefing References 17: All Roads Lead to Wall Street Montgomery Mansion Roads Action Frameworks and Agreements The Convergence Happy Birthday References 18: Occupy the World Social Forum Agora 99 Firenze 10+10 The World Social Forum Tunis References 19: Informal Elites Strike Debt Assembling Debtors The Coordinators The Coordinators and Consensus Kimani Gray The Debt Collective Occupy Sandy Mutual Aid Not Charity Hubs We Got This Red Hook Emergency Money References 20: The Founders The Storg versus The OWS Media Working Group The Founders Collaborate Stop Using Consensus Give the Gift of Occupy #IFoundedOccupyWallSt The Wolf of Occupy Wall Street Ownership and Use References 21: Power and Leadership Feminine Roles The Role of Connector The Role of Documentarian The Role of Admin Connective Work Trainings and Roles Organization and Disorganization References 22: Co-option Tunisia Egypt Greece Spain Back in the US #FeeltheBern The Aftermath References 23: Repression Tunisia Egypt Greece Spain OWS Entrapment Cases References 24: Neo-Fascism Breitbart Troll Armies J20 Charlottesville No Platform References 25: Conclusion: Building the New Society From The Global Justice Movement to Occupy Wall Street Internal Challenges External Challenges Lessons Learned Setting Intentions Working at the Intersections Being Accountable Distributing Resources Becoming Resilient Occupy Everywhere References Glossary Index